No Link Between Rising Malpractice Rates and Lawsuits
The consumer group Public Citizen recently released its summary of national data on medical malpractice insurance and lawsuits. The study showed no evidence of a link in the recent meteoric rise of insurance premiums and malpractice lawsuits.
"The hard, factual evidence cannot be any clearer: We have no medical malpractice lawsuit crisis in America," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "Insurance companies may be padding their bottom lines by jacking up rates on doctors, but it is not because of patients seeking relief for bad medical care through our courts. The true crisis continues to be in inadequate measures for patient safety and incompetent medical care by a small number of physicians."
Data released by the federal government's National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) revealed the following:
--The annual number of malpractice payments is down;
--The total value of malpractice payouts has been flat since 1991;
--Jury verdicts are not out of control;
--Verdicts of over 1 million dollars are down 56 percent;
--The incidence of surgical and obstetrics payouts is virtually unchanged from 1991 to 2004;
--Cases of serious injury to patients continue.
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